In reality, the photo appeared in story about Playboy’s “Charter Yacht Party: How to Have a Ball on the Briny with an Able-Bodied Complement of Ship’s Belles.” As seen in the below page from the November 1967 issue, the Playboy photo is in color. The “Exclusive” TMZ image is the same photo, just reproduced in black and white.

She said the comment referred to the reaction in the 60-90 minutes after the suspect attempted to blow up the plane. Up until that point, did the system fail miserably, Matt Lauer asked. “It did,” she responded.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Sunday that the thwarting of the attempt to blow up an Amsterdam-Detroit airline flight Christmas Day demonstrated that “the system worked.”

Asked by CNN’s Candy Crowley on “State of the Union” how that could be possible when the young Nigerian who has been charged with trying to set off the bomb was able to smuggle explosive liquid onto the jet, Napolitano responded: “We’re asking the same questions.”

Napolitano added that there was “no suggestion that [the suspect] was improperly screened.”

So, back in June 28, it took the Obama administration less time than that to declare Zelaya’s constitutional ousting a military coup. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had, by early afternoon, said that “the action taken against Honduras’ president should be condemned by everyone.”

is the former economics minister of Nigeria. He retired earlier this month as the chairman of the First Bank of Nigeria but is still on the boards of several of Nigeria’s biggest firms, including Jaiz International, a holding company for the Islamic Bank. The 70-year-old, who was also educated in London, holds the Commander of the Order of the Niger as well as the Italian Order of Merit.

Umaru had alerted US authorities on his son’s radical views six months ago.

Abdul had graduated from University College London, and previously lived in a $4 million flat in London the rest of us poor slobs sitting in coach can only dream of.

After graduation he had left the country but when he tried to go back to the UK,

his visa request was refused. He applied to return for a six-month course, but was barred by the UK Border Agency which judged that the college he applied to was “not genuine”.

He smuggled the explosives through Nigeria and Netherlands security checks:

The high explosive Abdulmutallab used was identified by the FBI as Pentaerythritol, better known as PETN – a major component of Semtex. He injected a detonating liquid into the PETN with a syringe, but the bomb failed to explode.

He had enogh explosives to blow up the plane.

The explosives were sewn into his underwear. Mark Steyn calls him the pantybomber.

Apparently he had a valid US visa even when his name was for at least two years in the US list of people with known or suspected contacts or ties to a terrorist or terrorist organization.

Among other steps being imposed, passengers on international flights coming to the United States will apparently have to remain in their seats for the last hour of a flight without any personal items on their laps. Overseas passengers will be restricted to only one carry-on item aboard the plane, and domestic passengers will probably face longer security lines.

Explain to me, please, how do any of these measures prevent in any way an al-Qaeda operative wearing explosives in his underwear from carrying them on the plane.

Obama is golfing and going to the gym because it’s strategy, not incompetent, to trivialize a terrorist attempt.

The men eager to self-detonate on infidel airliners are not goatherds from the caves of Waziristan but educated middle-class Muslims who have had the most exposure to the western world and could be pulling down six-figure salaries almost anywhere on the planet. And don’t look to “assimilation” to work its magic, either. We’re witnessing a process of generational de-assimilation: In this family, yet again, the dad is an entirely assimilated member of the transnational elite. His son wants a global caliphate run on Wahhabist lines.

1. According to early reports, the suspect is 23-year-old Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab, and his name “appears to be included in the government’s records of terrorist suspects, according to a preliminary review.” The first question, then, is how he managed to get a visa to come to the United States.

2. One report suggested that the visa was granted to attend a religious meeting. Is there some political correctness problem that makes State reluctant to deny visas for such travel?

3. A visa might have been granted for a good reason (a chance to interrogate or arrest him) but only in circumstances where he was watched closely. At a minimum, data about him should have gone to DHS and FBI from State. Did it?

4. Even if it didn’t, TSA and DHS should have identified him as a possible risk from his travel reservations. Did they? If not, why not?

5. If they did, was he screened specially at Schiphol? Did DHS put an air marshal on his flight?

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, beset by a recession that is hurting his popularity, has turned his sights on international car companies, threatening them with nationalization and pledging to ramp up government intervention in their local businesses.

The populist leader has threatened to expropriate Toyota Motor Corp.’s local assembly plant if the Japanese car maker doesn’t produce more vehicles designed for rural areas and transfer new technologies and manufacturing methods to its local unit. He said other car companies were also guilty of not transferring enough technology, mentioning Fiat SpA of Italy, which controls Chrysler Group LLC, and General Motors Co.

And who’s going to take over the Toyota plant? The Chinese!

The president ordered his trade minister, Eduardo Saman, to inspect the Toyota plant. He said if the inspection shows Toyota isn’t producing what he thinks it should and isn’t transferring technology, the government may consider taking over its plant and have a Chinese company operate it.

“We’ll take it, we’ll expropriate it, we’ll pay them what it is worth and immediately call on the Chinese,” Mr. Chávez said in a televised address late Wednesday.

Curiously, the article doesn’t mention what the Chinese have to say – if anything – about this proposed arrangement.

The announcement, however, didn’t take the Japanese entirely by surprise:

Any move to nationalize would have little impact on Toyota’s bottom line. The company’s Venezuelan operations are the smallest of the four Latin American markets where it produces cars, and the Venezuelan market has dropped sharply in the past year, while other markets in the region, such as Argentina, Brazil and Mexico, have either held steady or grown despite the global recession.

Toyota produced about 13,000 vehicles in Venezuela last year, and sold roughly 30,000 for a market share of 11%, lower than the Japanese car maker’s share in the U.S. Globally, Toyota sold nearly nine million vehicles in 2008.

In a typical Communist move, this will adversely affect Venezuelans (who soon enough will only have Venezuela-Iran Venirauto to choose from) more than it will Toyota or the other companies.

Still, it’s a Merry Christmas message from Hugo to China, and yet another f**k you to private enterprise, Japan, Italy and the US.

The initial impression is that the suspect was acting alone and did not have any formal connections to organized terrorist groups, said the official, who is familiar with the investigation.

Obviously he forgot to wear his al-Qaeda credentials with photo ID with bold lettering saying, “OFFICIAL MEMBER OF AL-QAEDA SINCE 2001” on a lanyard on his neck.

Security check in Amsterdam? Nope:

He did not undergo secondary security screening in Amsterdam, an administration official said.

Acting alone? Don’t think so:

British counterterrorism police officers were searching houses Saturday in central London in relation to the airline incident, a Metropolitan Police spokeswoman told CNN.

The heroes of Christmas days are the people who stopped him, particularly Jasper Schuringa and the cabin crew”

“Everybody got a little bit startled,” he said. “After a few seconds or so … there was … kind of a flamish light and there was fire” and people around the immediate area began to panic.

Schuringa said he heard a big bang that sounded like a firecracker going off. He told CNN that he was the one who was able to subdue Abdulmutallab. CNN was not able to independently confirm Schuringa’s account.

Schuringa said someone started yelling: “Fire! Fire!”

Then there was smoke. That’s when Schuringa said he knew something was terribly wrong.

When he noticed that Abdulmutallab was not moving, he grew suspect. He jumped over the passenger next to him and lunged over Abdulmutallab’s seat.

Schuringa said he saw that Abdulmutallab had his pants open and he was holding a burning object between his legs.

“I pulled the object from him and tried to extinguish the fire with my hands and threw it away,” Schuringa said.

He said he managed to pull an object tucked between Abdulmutallab’s legs.

“Water! Water,” Schuringa screamed. He heard fire extinguishers as he pulled Abdulmutallab out of his seat and dragged him to the front of the plane.

Schuringa said Abdulmutallab seemed dazed. “He was staring into nothing.”

Schuringa said he stripped off Abdulmutallab’s clothes to make sure he did not have other explosives on his body. A crew member helped handcuff him.

He said other passengers applauded as he walked back to his own seat.

“My hands are pretty burned. I am fine,” he said. “I am shaken up. I am happy to be here.”